More on the new Strawberry Shortcake dolls

The Toys R Us exclusive Strawberry Shortcake set.

Well, after writing the last post, I was curious to learn more about these new Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  Apparently, the copyright to the characters is owned by American Greetings, who are known for making greeting cards.  As some of you know, the Strawberry Shortcake characters began as drawings for greeting cards in 1977, which then got licensed out to various toy companies over the years to make dolls.  The first company to get the license to make the dolls was Kenner in 1979, and it was Kenner who made all the original Strawberry Shortcake dolls from the early '80s we know and love. 

The last of the Kenner dolls were produced in 1985.  After that, several other companies licensed the name and characters and produced their own versions.  The Bridge Direct, which produced the dolls shown in my last post, are new to the license this year.  Hasbro had the license last year (from 2009-2013) and for whatever reason, didn't renew the license agreement for 2014.  (Sidenote: Hasbro bought Kenner in 1991, so Kenner ended up becoming a division of Hasbro.)

Right now, at my Toys R Us they have some of the older Hasbro Shortcake dolls still on the shelves, right next to these newer Bridge Direct dolls.  I never liked the Hasbro version.  They never caught my eye like the newer dolls do.  (If they had, you'd probably have seen them on this blog before now.) 

Anyway, in researching these dolls, I found an absolutely excellent run-down of the history of the dolls, complete with great photos that show you how the dolls' look has changed over the years.  You can find it at the "Never Grow Up" blog, here.  I have to give kudos to the lady who writes that blog.  Apparently she's a big Strawberry Shortcake fan, and her post on their history is absolutely wonderful.  You should definitely check it out.  I didn't see it until after I did my post on The Bridge Direct dolls, so I was tickled to see that she'd also bought a Bridge Direct Strawberry Shortcake doll.

Back of the box.

Guess what?!  Toy R Us has an exclusive 5-pack of the newer dolls.  I had to get it this morning.  The outfits are VERY cute, but have a modern look.  I miss the prairie dresses of the original Kenner dolls, but the new clothes are adorable anyway.  And I noticed that with these, the tops and shorts are separate pieces, so you can mix-and-match them.  (Unlike the dolls of my last post, which had clothing that was sewn together.)  So I guess I'll have to do one more post on these girlies, when I debox them. 

Ciao.

Review of the Strawberry Shortcake dolls by The Bridge Direct

When I was a kid, my cousin Janelle had an enviable collection of Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  She had freaking every doll they made, plus playsets and separate outfits and the little pets that went with them, and I WANTED IT ALL. 

My mom never bought me any Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  Ever.  Sniff. 

So as an adult, my eyes are still drawn to these cute little dolls.    The newest incarnations look different from the originals, but they're still SO CUTE.  The new ones have big, pretty eyes and sweet expressions.  And they still smell so very good. 

After coveting Strawberry Shortcake dolls for 30 freaking years, I've finally, at long last, bought myself two dolls.  Yay! 

These two are from the "Berry Best Friends" set of four dolls, which also include the characters Lemon Meringue and Cherry Jam, made by The Bridge Direct, Inc.  They were $9.99 apiece and came with little toy dogs and combs.  I had to get this incarnation of Strawberry Shortcake because she came with the hat.  I mean, without the hat, she's just not Miss Shortcake, ya know?  The blue-haired one is Blueberry Muffin.  I love blue hair, so I wanted her even more than Miss Shortcake.  She comes with a cute plastic headband that fits her head nicely, and the blue dog.

They're 6" (15cm) tall.  I was pleasantly surprised by their body jointing.  They can either sit or stand, and they can actually stand on their own unsupported.  They can move their heads left and right.  Their arms are on a rotational joint so they can not only lift their arms, they can also swing them outward as well.  Their legs don't swing outward, but do have a nice sturdy hinge so they can sit straight-legged.  (The knees don't bend.)  They feel and bend like a nice-quality play doll.

Their face screening is wonderful!  To me, eyes mean everything for a doll, and these have great eyes.  Their hair quality is nice, too, and the rooting is pretty decent for a play doll.  They don't have big bald spots in the back when you part the hair.

The clothes are fairly simplistic, but cute.  They have a Velcro tab on the back so you can dress them in each other's clothes.  Each outfit is basically a single dress.  Blueberry's outfit looks at first like a top, skirt and jacket, but it's really all sewn together as a single garment.  Strawberry's top and skirt are sewn together.  It makes it easy for little hands to dress and undress them.  I'm not oohing and aaaahing over the quality of the clothes, but they're all right.  Their shoes fit nicely and are removable, too, so they can also exchange shoes. 

Here's the only weird thing about the dolls:  Their feet are crazy!  The stripes are painted on the legs, so it looks like they're wearing tights.  But when you take off their shoes, you can see toes!  LOL.  I guess this is so they can use the same mold for dolls who aren't wearing tights.  Looks funny to me, like they're wearing toe socks. 

There was another (nice) surprise with their pet dogs.  I didn't realize this at first, but the heads on the dogs can swivel around.  I love that.  It adds a bit more playability to what would otherwise be a cute little figurine. 

So, at long last I have the Strawberry Shortcake dolls I coveted as a child.  (Well, new versions, anyway.  LOL!)  They're sitting on my desk in front of me as I type this, oozing happy all over it. 

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Later,

Redressing in Franklin Mint

Tonner's Wonder Woman 52 wearing a Franklin Mint Marilyn Monroe outfit.

Years ago, I discovered a couple of stores that were getting rid of their Franklin Mint dolls and clothing.  Just giving them away for practically nothing on eBay.  I decided the time was right to get a Marilyn Monroe and a bunch of her clothes.  I got a dressed doll and eight of her outfits for a fraction of their original costs.  The outfits were around $15 apiece at the time!  I was looking at prices on eBay recently, and they're now going for between $50 and $100 per outfit!  Mine are all deboxed and played with now, of course.  In fact, I discovered I had to make repairs on two of them because a rhinestone brooch was falling off of one, and the sleeves were coming apart on this white gown, pictured below.

I also got an FM Princess Diana dress at the same time. ... I wish I hadn't.  I'd left Marilyn in a doll trunk with all those clothes, and for years she sat in my closet untouched in the trunk.  When I opened her up, I discovered stains all over her from the dark blue velvet Princess Diana dress, and from one of her own dresses.  Yes, I was stupid enough to leave her in her famous gold lame dress all that time.  (Sorry, I don't know how to do accent symbols over the "e" for the word "lame" in this program.)  Ack! 

Franklin Mint clothes stain like crazy.  She wasn't even WEARING the blue Diana dress.   It had merely pressed up against her shoulder while she was stuck in the trunk, and now her shoulder is blue.  Sigh.  Her gold lame dress left marks ALL OVER her, even on her shoulders and around her neck.  I'm attempting to treat Marilyn with Twin Pines of Maine's "Remove-Zit" now.  I saved an Antoinette with blue feet with it once, so hopefully it'll work on Mary.

Above is the dark blue velvet Princess Diana gown.  It's too bad it stains so badly, because it's an absolutely beautiful dress. Ya better believe I stripped it off Mera right after I took this picture!  (And don't you love Franklin Mint jewelry?  That necklace is amazing!)

I'm so glad I kept these clothes all these years, though, because I just discovered they are a PERFECT fit for the 16" Tonner Heroic body.  Seriously perfect.  I wanted to show you pictures of my Mera and Wonder Woman wearing them, because they're absolutely fabulous.  I just won't ever trap them in a trunk with the clothes like I did to poor Marilyn.  And they aren't allowed to wear any of the dark clothes for more than three seconds at a time.  LOL!  The evil blue velvet Diana dress is now sealed in a plastic bag so it can't hurt anyone ever again.

The outfit with the red jacket over the white blouse, and black skirt (above) is not Franklin Mint.  That's actually a Tonner outfit made for HIS version of Marilyn Monroe, called "The Problem With Rose."  It fits the Heroic body nicely, although I did have to tug a bit to get that jacket snapped over those giant bosums.  Tonner's Marilyn has a slightly smaller bust than the FM version, but apparently a similar waist and hip size.

Here's "The Problem With Rose" on Wonder Woman 52.  It looks like it was made for her!  The shoes don't quite fit right, though.  Mera here is dressed in a Tyler outfit. I've found a lot of Tyler skirts fit the Heroic body, but the skirt from this outfit was too tight and won't snap in the back.  Regular Tyler pants won't fit over the bodacious Heroic butt. 

Liz Taylor and Ann-Margret?

Some more Franklin Mint Marilyn outfits:

I just realized I have a LOT of red doll clothes.

My poor, stained Marilyn seemed happy about getting some face time after being stuck inside a trunk for the past 10 years.  I couldn't leave this post without showing at least ONE picture of her, after those other bitches stole all her clothes.   LOL!

"Why do you not love me any more?"

Mera 52 by Tonner

I love Tonner factory sales!  They had one recently, and I saw they'd reduced the price of this red-haired bombshell I'd been eyeing all year long.  She was less than half price!  I figured I'd never see her that cheap again, so I grabbed her. 

She is the DC Comics character Mera, Queen of Atlantis.  Now, I'm not really a comic book fan.  I like them, but they aren't really my thing.  I grew up in the '70s on TV versions of DC Comics characters.  I watched the Super Friends cartoon, and was a huge fan of the Wonder Woman TV series with Linda Carter.  I've read some Wonder Woman comics, but never kept up with them.

But Mera Queen of Atlantis was never on my radar, even though I was pretty well-versed in the other DC characters.  I think if the doll had been in an elaborate gown I would have bought her sooner, but of course, the green skin-tight bodysuit is accurate to the current comic books.

I have to say, they did a fantastic job on the crown and arm guards!  They aren't faux leather like the arm guards on my Wonder Woman 52.  They're high-quality, hard plastic and have a shine to them.  I love the crown!  There is a thin string of clear elastic that you loop under her chin to keep the crown on, but it doesn't look bad. 

Her hair is amazing.  I get such an Ann-Margret vibe from her, between the hair color and her va-va-voom body.  She has the "Heroic" Tonner body like Wonder Woman 52, which I'm thrilled about. 

She's now sold out on the Tonner site, but still available from some of their dealers.

Redressed, she's pretty amazing (click on the pics to make them bigger):

And her original costume is fun.  (Please note:  Wonder Woman and Mera are NOT friends!)

Her face paint is really lovely.

I'd like to come back later and talk about the clothes that will fit this body, so I'll be doing another post about them soon.

*Hugs*